Increase your worth as a freelancer by providing value, not by indulging in price wars
On sites like Upwork, freelancers have become a fully fledged commodity these days. The client doesn't care that I communicate timely in good english, nor do they care that I provide readable and maintainable code which is thoroughly tested. Most of them are only interested in one statistic:
What is my hourly rate or how much money do I charge for a particular project.
Now, when you've got to compete with freelancers from poorest nations like Bangladesh and Ethiopia, you can't realistically expect the rest to compete at those prices. But you can compete on other attributes like providing robust and tested code, better and timely communication, problem solving skills and better eye for a detail, etc.
But problem is that such clients who value these attributes above the financial cost of the project are very few on Upwork. You have to search them with a lantern by applying for one job after another. Unfortunately, you can't do that either because if you apply for too many jobs, their automated systems will suspend your freelance account! In other words, we freelancers are the digital proletariat toiling in the Upwork capitalist system, the only available choices are: either accept the given wage or go home.
This toxicity is one of the reasons why I started to work on Fiverr. Thankfully, Fiverr doesn't encourage this cutthroat competition and mentally toxic environment. Instead of bidding on each job, Fiverr has a system of services or gigs where each individual freelancer can create a gig describing their skills and experience in great detail. Clients who evaluate these gigs based on their Fiverr searches contact the freelancer, its not the other way round. And this is exactly how it should be because in this system, a freelancer is no longer a commodity now. He/she is an individual with a diverse set of skills and abilities totally unique to them. This is a more humane approach as it respects the freelancer as much as the client. I've never had even one client bargaining aggressively on price like they typically do on Upwork.
As freelancers, its important to work in a climate that improves our self esteem, not one that treats us like a commodity. I hope that more and more freelancers understand the importance of this and better their lives and freelancing careers.
What is my hourly rate or how much money do I charge for a particular project.
Now, when you've got to compete with freelancers from poorest nations like Bangladesh and Ethiopia, you can't realistically expect the rest to compete at those prices. But you can compete on other attributes like providing robust and tested code, better and timely communication, problem solving skills and better eye for a detail, etc.
But problem is that such clients who value these attributes above the financial cost of the project are very few on Upwork. You have to search them with a lantern by applying for one job after another. Unfortunately, you can't do that either because if you apply for too many jobs, their automated systems will suspend your freelance account! In other words, we freelancers are the digital proletariat toiling in the Upwork capitalist system, the only available choices are: either accept the given wage or go home.
This toxicity is one of the reasons why I started to work on Fiverr. Thankfully, Fiverr doesn't encourage this cutthroat competition and mentally toxic environment. Instead of bidding on each job, Fiverr has a system of services or gigs where each individual freelancer can create a gig describing their skills and experience in great detail. Clients who evaluate these gigs based on their Fiverr searches contact the freelancer, its not the other way round. And this is exactly how it should be because in this system, a freelancer is no longer a commodity now. He/she is an individual with a diverse set of skills and abilities totally unique to them. This is a more humane approach as it respects the freelancer as much as the client. I've never had even one client bargaining aggressively on price like they typically do on Upwork.
As freelancers, its important to work in a climate that improves our self esteem, not one that treats us like a commodity. I hope that more and more freelancers understand the importance of this and better their lives and freelancing careers.
Comments
Post a Comment